BY LEONG Z-KEEN
Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi is truly a jack of all trades throughout his life.
In a candid interview with New Sarawak Tribune, the Pantai Damai assemblyman and Deputy Miniser for Utility and Telecommunication (Utility) spoke about his pastimes and potential career paths.
Question: What is your hobby during your free time?
Answer: I quite like to play some sports like tennis and I used to go on rides with my bike, but my age is catching up with me, so my hobbies currently are fishing with friends and gardening with my wife.
Question: What are the aspects you liked about gardening?
Answer: For me, I would prefer to plant the seeds myself. During the Covid-19 period, I had lesser things to do, so I watched a few YouTube videos on how to plant ‘Musang King’, one of the durian variants. Right now, I have three ‘Musang King’ trees and a Sour Green Mango tree from Thailand in my garden.
Question: What was the inspiration behind planting these two fruit trees?
Answer: I basically liked watching things grow. I was a medical doctor before and I had a hand in delivering babies. Seeing and witnessing something growing up, be it babies or in this case, my plants, it is like a form of therapy for me, especially when you watch them grow up to be healthy.
Question: How do you balance your time between your hobby and work?
Answer: It comes about automatically because I have been doing it for many years during my assemblyman tenure. I arrange my time accordingly especially for the weekdays because most of the events are normally scheduled during the weekends, so the evening during weekdays will become our leisure time. I do not have a fixed rule whereby I must take breaks during weekends because being an assemblyman, I am constantly needed at anytime of the day.
Question: How do you take care of your health while doing so many activities?
Answer: I am a doctor, so I am able to look after myself. I have been practicing medicine for about 20 years. Just eat more healthy food and try to take timely meals consistently. Do not go beyond your limit as it can be a potential health hazard.
Question: If you were not a politician today, would you still practice medicine or switch to a different career path?
Answer: I had many ambitions from being a lawyer to an engineer and even a doctor. If I was not a politician today, I would be either one of the three mentioned careers.
